Prey

Outside, Jack estimates that they have three hours to find and tag the swarms. Mae takes them to the rabbit—which has been eaten by bacteria—and finds it covered in a white film. Charley thinks the swarms killed the rabbit to eat it so that more E. coli would grow in its corpse. Then it could make more swarms. Charley also believes that the black nanoparticles will eventually replace the white goo, which acts as a precursor. Jack notices that there are birds nearby and wonders why the swarms leave them alone.

Eric calls Jack’s cell phone, complaining that Julia refuses to stay in the hospital and that he doesn’t like Ellen. After Jack disconnects, they reach a large storage shed. Charley sprays David with Windex, testing the trigger of the bottle they will spray the radioisotopes with. As Mae gathers the radioisotopes, the rest of them collect explosive thermite caps for later use as Bobby keeps them updated on changing wind speed. Jack asks Ricky to put the swarm code on a monitor. He sees an unfamiliar command: “compstat_do” (201), and notes that the important code is missing. He asks Ricky where it is, and Ricky cagily replies he’ll have to look for it.